The Night Watch and the Great Exchange Text: Psalm 134
Introduction: The Last Ascent
We come this morning to the last of the Songs of Ascents. For fifteen psalms, we have been pilgrims, making our way up to Jerusalem, up to the house of the Lord. These songs have taught us how to walk, how to trust, how to build, how to fight, and how to live together in unity. And now, the festival is over. The great celebration has concluded, and the pilgrims are making their way back home, many of them beginning their journey in the pre-dawn darkness. This final psalm is their farewell. It is a brief, liturgical exchange, a final volley of blessing between the departing worshipers and the priests and Levites who remain on duty, keeping the night watch at the temple.
But it is far more than a polite goodbye. This psalm is a dense, compact summary of the entire Christian life. It is about the perpetual nature of worship, the relationship between God's people and their ministers, the importance of our physical bodies in worship, and the ultimate source of all blessing. It is a conversation saturated with the name of God, Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. In just three short verses, His name appears four times. This is all about Him.
We live in a restless, sleepless age. Our cities are lit up all night, full of activity, much of it godless. The night is often seen as a time for sin, for dissipation, for worry. But God has always intended for the worship of His name to be perpetual. While the city sleeps, the fire on the altar was to never go out. And so here, the departing pilgrims call out to the night shift, to those who stand guard in the holy place, and they exhort them to keep the worship going. And in response, the priests pronounce a rich blessing upon the people. This is the great exchange of the Christian life: we bless God, and in return, He blesses us. This is the rhythm of covenant life.
The Text
A Song of Ascents.
Behold, bless Yahweh, all you slaves of Yahweh,
Who stand in the house of Yahweh by night!
Lift up your hands to the sanctuary
And bless Yahweh.
May Yahweh bless you from Zion,
Who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 134:1-3 LSB)
A Summons to Perpetual Worship (v. 1)
The psalm opens with a summons from the departing pilgrims to the servants of the Lord who remain.
"Behold, bless Yahweh, all you slaves of Yahweh, Who stand in the house of Yahweh by night!" (Psalm 134:1)
The word "Behold" is a call to attention. Look! Pay heed! This is important. What follows is not a suggestion, but a command: "bless Yahweh." To bless God is to praise Him, to speak well of Him, to extol His virtues. It is a declaration of His worth. Of course, when we bless God, we are not adding anything to Him that He lacks. He is eternally complete. Rather, we are acknowledging the glorious reality of who He is. We are ascribing to Him the glory that is already His.
And who is to do this? "All you slaves of Yahweh." In our egalitarian age, we chafe at a word like "slave" or "servant." But in the Bible, this is a title of high honor. Moses was the servant of the Lord. David was the servant of the Lord. Paul was a bond-servant of Jesus Christ. To be a slave of Yahweh is to be liberated from the slavery of sin, self, and Satan. It means you belong to the best possible Master. Here, it refers specifically to the priests and Levites, those whose vocation was to minister in the temple. They were on duty.
Their post is "in the house of Yahweh," and their shift is "by night." While the rest of the nation is asleep, the worship must not cease. The light of God's praise must never be extinguished. This is a powerful picture of the church's duty in a dark world. We are the night watch. While the world around us is dark, spiritually asleep and given over to deeds of darkness, we are to be those who stand in the house of the Lord, vigilant, watchful, and full of praise. The world's darkness must not put out our light; our light must rebuke the world's darkness.
The Posture of Blessing (v. 2)
The exhortation continues, becoming more specific about the physical act of worship.
"Lift up your hands to the sanctuary And bless Yahweh." (Psalm 134:2 LSB)
Here we are reminded that worship is not a disembodied, purely intellectual exercise. We are not Gnostics. God created us as embodied souls, and we are to worship Him with our whole being, body and soul together. The command is to "lift up your hands." This is a thoroughly biblical posture of prayer and praise (1 Tim. 2:8). It is a gesture of surrender, of openness, of reaching toward God. It signifies that our help comes from Him, and our praise is directed to Him. It is an act of offering ourselves up to Him as living sacrifices.
Too often, particularly in Reformed circles, we can become so focused on the content of our minds that we forget that our bodies are part of the deal. We are not just brains in a jar being transported to church. We stand to honor God's Word. We kneel in confession. And we lift our hands in praise. This is not mindless emotionalism; it is embodied theology. We are declaring with our hands what we believe in our hearts: that God is holy, that He is enthroned in the sanctuary, and that He is worthy of all our praise.
The command to "bless Yahweh" is repeated, driving the point home. This is the central duty of the servants of God. Whatever else they are doing, guarding the temple, tending the lamps, their primary task is to bless the Lord. And so it is with us. Whatever our station, our primary calling in this life is to be a worshiper, one who blesses the name of the Lord.
The Fountain of All Blessing (v. 3)
Now, the roles reverse. The priests on duty respond to the people, pronouncing the benediction of God upon them as they depart.
"May Yahweh bless you from Zion, Who made heaven and earth." (Psalm 134:3 LSB)
This is the glorious recoil of worship. We bless God, and He blesses us. This is not a transaction, as though we put God in our debt. It is a covenantal reality. He has designed the world in such a way that when we give Him the praise He is due, He opens the windows of heaven and pours out His favor upon us. Our blessing goes up, and His blessing comes down.
And where does this blessing come from? "From Zion." Zion is the place where God has chosen to place His name. It is the earthly location of His throne, the house of the Lord. In the New Covenant, the church is the new Zion (Heb. 12:22). God's blessing flows to the world through His covenant people, gathered for worship. When we gather as the church, we are ascending the heavenly Mount Zion. And from that place, God blesses us, so that we might carry that blessing out into the world.
But the foundation of this blessing is cosmic in scope. The one who blesses from Zion is the very one "Who made heaven and earth." This is crucial. This is not the blessing of some local, tribal deity. This is the blessing of the transcendent Creator of all things. Because He made everything, He owns everything, and He can command anything. He who made the stars can certainly mend your heart. He who created the oceans can handle your financial troubles. He who formed the mountains can move the obstacles in your path.
This connects the God of grace (Yahweh who blesses from Zion) with the God of nature (the one who made heaven and earth). Our covenant relationship with God is not a small, private affair. It is grounded in the reality of His absolute sovereignty over all creation. He has the power to bless us because He made all the stuff with which we might be blessed. And He has the will to bless us because He is our covenant-keeping God. His creative power guarantees His ability to bless, and His covenant name guarantees His promise to bless.
Conclusion: The Great Exchange
So this little psalm presents us with the fundamental rhythm of the Christian life. It is a great exchange of blessing. The people exhort their ministers to be faithful in worship, to bless the Lord day and night. The ministers, in turn, pronounce God's rich blessing back upon the people.
This is what we do here, week in and week out. You come, as pilgrims, to the house of the Lord. You call upon us, your ministers, to be faithful in our service, to bless the Lord. And we, at the conclusion of our worship, raise our hands and declare the benediction, the blessing of God upon you. "The Lord bless you and keep you..."
This is not an empty ritual. This is spiritual reality. We bless God for who He is, the Maker of heaven and earth. And He, in turn, blesses us from Zion, His church, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He blesses us with forgiveness, with peace, with strength for the journey home. And we depart, not empty-handed, but filled with the favor of the almighty God, ready to be His faithful servants in the dark places of the world, until we all ascend to the heavenly city together for that final, unending festival.